Cindy Mccain’s personal fortune: An asset and a liability for the old man ?
Cindy’s fortune: An asset and a liability
In 2004, Republicans demanded fuller disclosure about the considerable fortune of Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Now, the GOP is reaping what it sowed.
Having established a recent precedent for increased scrutiny of spousal finances, the party now finds its own presumptive nominee, John McCain, under an unwanted spotlight over the fortune of his current wife, Cindy.
In recent years, a Politico analysis found, the McCain family appears to have tapped its fortune liberally.
While Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control made as much as $29 million and likely substantially more from her family’s business interests from 2004 through last year, data from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Center
for Responsive Politics also reveals that they spent $11 million purchasing
five condominiums for the family, hired additional household help and racked
up progressively larger credit card bills almost every year.
Their credit card bills peaked between January 2007 and May 2008, during which time Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another,
while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.
The aide did not answer questions about what Cindy McCain or her children purchased with the cards and declined to make either she or her husband available for an interview about their finances or spending habits.
Cindy McCain released only the first two pages of her 2006 tax return. She received an extension until Oct. 15 to file her 2007 returns, and the aide said she will make the decision whether to release her 2007 return at the appropriate time.
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose fortune was estimated to be worth more than $750 million,
eventually released comparably limited information about her finances after repeated demands from Republicans
who asserted the public’s right to know because they said her finances were intertwined with those of her husband’s presidential campaign. The Kerry campaign had benefited from a $6.4 million personal loan John Kerry secured using, as collateral, equity in a
Boston townhouse the couple jointly owned.
Likewise, John McCain’s presidential campaign benefited from Cindy McCain’s fortune, using a legal loophole to
travel the country in a jet owned by her company for cut-rate fares.
That revelation, combined with recent reports about Cindy McCain’s hefty credit card tabs and nearly $7,000 in
unpaid property taxes on a condo owned by a trust she oversees have drawn even closer scrutiny
to the McCain family finances.
While John McCain’s campaign spending is a matter of public record, his family’s personal spending is not, and
for the most part there’s only anecdotal information available.
For instance, in the June issue of Vogue magazine, Cindy McCain said she favors suits made by the German designer Escada,
which typically retail for around $3,000 a pop. If she becomes first lady, she told Vogue
she may switch to an American designer,
possibly Carolina Herrera, whose suits are comparably pricey.
Property records show that trusts and corporations controlled by her and her children spent nearly $11 million between the
summer of 2004 and February 2008 on three condominiums in Phoenix and a pair outside San Diego.
One of the Phoenix condos, a 6,600-square-foot unit for which Cindy McCain’s trust paid $4.7 million in October 2006,
became Cindy McCain’s primary residence after the trust sold the couple’s Phoenix house for $3.2 million in December 2006.
She had purchased the house years earlier from her father.
Less than one year later, a corporation controlled by Cindy McCain bought another condo on a lower
floor in the same building for $830,000.
And, in between, the corporation plunked down $700,000 for a 1,900-square foot, three-bedroom loft condo for her
then-22-year-old daughter Meghan McCain, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New York’s
Columbia University.
Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an
exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.
Through her trusts and other corporate entities, Cindy McCain also owns another three properties:
a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and
political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that’s been John McCain’s Washington-area residence
since 1993 and the La Jolla, Calif., condo on which the back taxes were due.
The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007,
according to John McCain’s tax returns.
Other than the primary Phoenix residence, the aide said the new condos were purchased for investment and are
available for personal use by the McCain family.
The recent growth in the family’s credit card bills could stem from furnishing, decorating and moving into the new condos,
said Christopher Cordaro, a wealth manager at RegentAtlantic Capital in New Jersey.
After reviewing the McCains’ taxes and disclosures for Politico, he declared their finances in ship-shape and their
spending understandable when put in perspective that the McCains are very wealthy.
Judging by their finances and spending, Cordaro asserted the McCains likely qualified for top-tier charge accounts loaded with benefits.
In addition to the American Express cards which carry no monthly interest charges Cindy and John McCain jointly
hold a credit card through Chase with a steep 25.99 percent interest rate. It had a top balance as large as $15,000 last year.
And in 2004, one of their dependent children had an AmEx Business Platinum card with a top monthly balance of $50,000.
The McCain aide wouldn’t identify which child got the card, but their oldest, Meghan, turned 20 that year.
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